Isaiah 40

Prepare the Way for Yahweh// Matthew 3:1–12; Mark 1:1–8; Luke 3:1–20; John 1:19–28

¹“Comfort, comfort My people,”

says your God.

• IS 40:1[PROPHECY]'Comfort, comfort My people' → LK 2:25MEDIUM
• IS 40:1[NOTE]A NEW SECTION. Who wrote chapters 40 to 66? See One Isaiah or Three?

²“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and proclaim to her

that her forced labor has been completed;

her iniquity has been pardoned.

For she has received from the hand of Yahweh

double for all her sins.”

³A voice of one calling:

“Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness;

make a straight highway for our God in the desert.

• IS 40:3[PROPHECY]His coming preceded by a forerunner (John the Baptist) → MT 3:3; LK 3:4-6; JN 1:23
• IS 40:3[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → MT 3:3
• IS 40:3[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → MK 1:2-3
• IS 40:3[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → LK 3:4-6
• IS 40:3[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → JN 1:23

⁴Every valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill made low;

the uneven ground will become smooth,

and the rugged land a plain.

⁵And the glory of Yahweh will be revealed,

and all humanity together will see it.”

For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.

• IS 40:5[PROPHECY]'The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed' → LK 3:6; JN 1:14

The Enduring Word// 1 Peter 1:22–25

⁶A voice says, “Cry out!”

And I asked, “What should I cry out?”

“All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory like the flowers of the field.

• IS 40:6[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → JAS 1:10-11
• IS 40:6[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → 1PE 1:24-25

⁷The grass withers and the flowers fall

when the breath of Yahweh blows on them;

indeed, the people are grass.

⁸The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God stands forever.”

• IS 40:8[ARCHAEOLOGY]Hebrew Bible scrolls from about 250 BC to AD 70 show the text was copied faithfully for over 1,000 years
• IS 40:8[FIELD NOTES]See The Great Isaiah Scroll Field Notes at the front of Isaiah.

Here Is Your God!// Romans 11:33–36

⁹Go up on a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good news.

Raise your voice loudly,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news.

Lift it up,

do not be afraid!

Say to the cities of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

• IS 40:9[PROPHECY]Announced as 'Behold your God!' → MT 1:23; JN 1:14MEDIUM

¹⁰Behold, the Lord Yahweh comes with might,

and His arm establishes His rule.

His reward is with Him,

and His recompense accompanies Him.

• IS 40:10[PROPHECY]He would come bringing reward → STILL TO COME

¹¹He tends His flock like a shepherd;

He gathers the lambs in His arms

and carries them close to His heart.

He gently leads the nursing ewes.

• IS 40:11[PROPHECY]A compassionate Shepherd who gives life → JN 10:10-18

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,

or weighed the mountains on a scale

and the hills with a balance?

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh,

or informed Him as His counselor?

• IS 40:13[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → ROM 11:34-35
• IS 40:13[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → 1CO 2:16

¹⁴Whom did He consult to enlighten Him,

and who taught Him the paths of justice?

Who imparted knowledge to Him

and showed Him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are considered a speck of dust on the scales;

He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel,

nor its animals enough for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before Him;

He regards them as nothingness and emptiness.

¹⁸To whom will you liken God?

To what image will you compare Him?

• IS 40:18[DEMONIC]A craftsman builds an idol that will not topple

¹⁹To an idol that a craftsman casts

and a metalworker overlays with gold

and fits with silver chains?

²⁰One lacking such an offering

chooses wood that will not rot.

He seeks a skilled craftsman

to set up an idol that will not topple.

²¹Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?

Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth?

²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth;

its dwellers are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

²³He brings the princes to nothing

and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless.

²⁴No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown,

no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground,

than He blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.

²⁵“To whom will you liken Me,

or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high:

Who created all these?

He leads forth the starry host by number;

He calls each one by name.

Because of His great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob,

and why do you assert, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from Yahweh,

and my claim is ignored by my God”?

²⁸Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Yahweh is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary;

His understanding is beyond searching out.

²⁹He gives power to the faint

and increases the strength of the weak.

³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall.

³¹But those who wait upon Yahweh will renew their strength;

they will mount up with wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not faint.